(JA) — I captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is reed in the prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas was approved by Israel’s cabinet 26-3, it willraise two immediate questions: Which side nally acceded to the other’sdemands aer years o ruitless negotiations since Shalit was captured ina June 2006 raid along the Israel-Gaza border, and what took so long toget there?Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu oered some hints aboutthe rst issue in a hastily called news conerence shortly beore going intothe Cabinet meeting late uesday night.Tis deal, he suggested, was the best Israel was going to get, so i Israelwas ever going to recover Shalit, it had to happen now.“With everything that is happening in Egypt and the region, I don’tknow i the uture would have allowed us to get a better deal — or any deal at all or that matter,” Netanyahu said on Israeli television. “Tewindow appeared ollowing ears that collapsing Mideast regimes andthe rise o extremist orces would make Gilad Shalit’s return impossible.”Te prime minister added, “I all goes according to plan, Gilad will bereturning to Israel in the coming days.”Te deal reportedly was signed by the two sides on Oct. 6 in Cairo ol-lowing years o negotiations and mediation via the Egyptians. News o the deal was rst reported by the satellite V station Al Arabiya. Its exactcontours remain unknown.Shalit’s release would mark a remarkable end to a ve-year saga thathas transxed the Israeli public, rustrated two successive Israeli govern-ments, and spanned two wars.Ten a corporal in the Israeli army, Shalit was taken captive at age 19on June 25, 2006, and almost immediately his amily launched an inces-sant public campaign to ree him. Te crusade included vigils, marches,

2

community news

Jtn .

www.Jtnews.net

.

friday, october 14, 2011

Herzl-Ner Tamid proudly presents

November 2, 9 and 16

This year features over 40 classes taught by teachers,clergy, and scholars from all denominations of Judaism.

meetings, statements by world leaders,celebrity endorsements, bumper stick-ers, congressional resolutions, songs anda protest encampment opposite the primeminister’s ocial residence in Jerusalem.Shalit’s plight struck a chord in theJewish State and the Jewish world, andIsraelis and Jews rom all walks o lie andpolitical camps took part in activities call-ing or his release.It’s not clear whether this public cam-paign helped usher in the deal announceduesday or whether it hindered an agree-ment rom being reached.Shalit’s amily believed that it had tokeep up the public pressure on the Israeligovernment to seal the deal. At the o-cial state Independence Day ceremony lastYom Ha’atzmaut in May, Shalit’s brotherYoel darted onstage with his girlriendand a banner reading “Shalit is still alive.”Instead o getting arrested or the stunt onthe national television broadcast, he gotan audience with Israeli opposition leaderzipi Livni.But some analysts warned that all thepublic clamor to ree Shalit only made a dealmore dicult by increasing the price Hamasdemanded or his release. Indeed, or yearsIsrael insisted the price was too high.On uesday,

ime

magazine reportedthe exchange would include as many as1,000 Palestinian prisoners — the rst 450named by Hamas, and then 550 named by Israel. Te prisoners “will include as many as 315 men convicted o killing hundredso Israelis in terror attacks,”

ime

oreigneditor ony Karon wrote.Critics o prisoner-exchange swapswarn that such deal merely encouragesIsrael’s enemies to capture more Israelis.Such criticism ollowed then-PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert’s decision in July 2008 to trade ive Lebanese prisoners— including notorious murderer SamirKuntar — and the bodies o 199 others inexchange or the bodies o Ehud Goldwas-ser and Eldad Regev, two Israeli soldierscaptured in the border attack by Hezbol-lah that sparked the 2006 Lebanon War.Goldwasser and Regev were thoughtto have been killed in the attack or shortly thereaer, but until the cons with theirbodies arrived on Israeli soil, Israeli o-cials said they could not know with cer-tainty that they were no longer alive.Shalit’s case has been a little dierent.In a video released by his captors in Octo-ber 2009, a rail but otherwise healthy-looking Shalit held a current newspaperand read a message asking Israeli author-ities to conclude an agreement or hisrelease. In all his years in captivity, Shalitwas allowed no international or Red Cross visitors.As Israel’s Cabinet debated the deallate uesday night, the heads o the IsraelDeense Forces, the Mossad and the ShinBet internal security service all reportedly expressed support or the deal.

W

ShalITPagE 1

Te qestio of te dy

emily K. alHadeff

aitt editor, JTn

You’re all here because you want to say “no” to hate, said Hilary Bernstein, com-munity director o the Anti-DeamationLeague’s Pacic Northwest regional oce.But “what are you going to do about it?What are you willing to do to make ourcommunity no place or hate? Tat is thequestion o the day.”he ADL’s annual luncheon, whichsupports its No Place or Hate anti-bul-lying educational program, eatured JohnQuiñones o ABC’s “What Would

You

Do?” and longtime supporter Mark R.Schuster, this year’s 2011 orch o Liberty Award recipient.Quiñones, a Mexican-American,described growing up in the barrio o SanAntonio, ex. and traveling with his amily as a migrant arm worker. Raised in poverty and with a sense o social injustice, Quiño-nes went on to earn a Master’s in Journal-ism rom Columbia University because “Iwanted to make a dierence,” he said.On his V show, he sets up public sce-narios o racism, classism and xenopho-bia to challenge passers-by to take a stand.While the program doesn’t always showthe philanthropic side o humanity, “Wecan be conditioned to care, to be gener-ous,” he said.Schuster described an ADL mission toIsrael in 2005, during which his group wasgranted a rare opportunity to meet pri- vately with Palestinian Authority presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas.“None o us had any pretense that wewere going to infuence Middle East peacethat day,” he said.But the meeting le him with hope, andit diminished a cynical view o a never-ending confict.What we need, he said, is to resur-rect three values: Civility, compassion,and optimism. “I’m an optimist, and I’ma dreamer,” he said. “We can change theworld.”

“It’s actually one of the best cases I ever had. It was really unbelievably rewarding.”— Attorney Barry Wallis on his legal victory for a woman seeking asylum. See the story on page 17.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR: We wold love to hear fro o! Or ide to writi aletter to the editor a be fod at www.jtews.et/idex.h?/letters_idelies.htl,bt lease liit or letters to aroxiatel 350 words. The deadlie for the ext isse isOtober 18. Ftre deadlies a be fod olie.

Te mezz secrity cm

rabbi Simon benzaqUen

sprdi Bikur holi

While shopping at thepharmacy last week, I couldn’thelp notice they were sellinghome security cameras. Tesecameras are to be installedoutside o one’s home to mon-itor any activity day and nightor security purposes. Somecameras were expensive andsome were very cheap. I took a closer look at both optionsand noticed that the much cheaper secu-rity cameras were exact replicas o theexpensive cameras, but they weren’t ableto monitor or record anything at all. Eventhough they looked exactly the same astheir expensive counterparts, and weremade by the same company, there were inact just decoys — empty cameras. A very interesting chance to take.As a rabbi, I started thinking aboutthe rst home security system used by the Jewish people. Tey were installed onthe Jewish homes in Egypt. Te upsideo these primitive yet very eective unitswas their simplicity o installation. Lambblood on the door posts with hyssopbranches. Te downside o these units wasthat they were in service and eective orone night only, known as the beginningo “

yetziat Mitzrayim

,” the rapid exodusrom Egyptian slavery. Te Angel o Death just couldn’t penetrate these orce elds o security and was orced to pass over ontothe next domicile.It is interesting to note that the Jewishpeople might normally have thoughto keeping themselves secure by hidingtheir Jewish identity and especially notbringing any attention to their homes.During Passover, it was quite the oppo-site. God commanded them to proudly identiy themselves as a group and standup (or, more accurately, stay home) andbe counted as one. Teir security came via an identication with the community at large.Fast orward some years, and thesystem was upgraded with the command-ment o

mezuzah

.Te Biblical source or the command-ment o

mezuzah

is ound twice in Deu-teronomy, the h book o the orah. Teorah states in two entire paragraphs: “Andyou shall write these words on the entry-ways o your dwellings and your gates.”Te oral law, which God taught Mosheat Mount Sinai, teaches that these rst twoparagraphs o the

shema

are to be axedto the right side o the doorpost. Te twoparagraphs o the

shema

contained inthe

mezuzah

include the declaration o God’s Oneness and the basics o rewardand punishment, two undamentals o the Jewish aith. Te

mezuzah

is nally axed to each doorway o ourhomes, schools, synagogues,and some place them on theirbusinesses. Tese parchmentsare to be written by a tradi-tional “God-earing” scribe,according to strict codes o Jewish law. hey must bewritten with special black ink and with a quill on one pieceo specially prepared andscored parchment. Te

)one automatically contemplates the Sin-gularity o the Name o God. He recallshis aection or Him. He will then awakerom his sleep and his obsession with thedaily grind, and come to realize that thereis nothing that lasts or eternity exceptor the knowledge o the Creator o theworld. Tis will motivate him to regainull awareness and ollow the paths o theupright.

efllin

,

tzitzit

and

mezuzah

areone’s true reminders and security guards.”In reality then, it is not only the

mezu-zah

that watches over us, but it is ourwatching o the

mezuzah

that can bring usto a level o consciousness like no other,which can empower us to decipher thesecrets o the universe.So, how does the

mezuzah

compareto the modern-day security-monitoringcamera system I stumbled upon at thepharmacy?For one, there are also two models. A

mezuzah

that contains a kosher parch-ment is connected to a recording systemand actually writes the data to a spiritualhard-drive, which some reer to nowadaysas “Te cloud.”Tere is also a much cheaper model,rom the same company, but it’s only thecase. It might look serious, but it’s just adecoy.Tis too is a very interesting chanceto take, especially during this time o theyear. For the High Holidays, Rosh Hasha-nah and Yom Kippur, many people doa lot o soul searching and introspectionor an increased level o consciousness.Tough I don’t install security cameras,I do install and check the parchments o

Does the Israeli government — or ours for that matter — see the sad irony in opposingvotes at the UN regarding the recognition of a Palestinian state? Where would Israel be todaywere it not for the votes taken in 1947? Yet here we are in 2011, with Israel and the UnitedStates opposing action that reiterates the UN’s longstanding support for a two-state solution.Rather than opposing the recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN, Israel and the U.S.should endorse it and work with the Palestinian Authority to ensure its implementation. Thelonger Israel, the PA and the U.S. delay, the greater the possibility that dream of two statesliving in peace alongside each other will fade like a mirage in the desert. Instead we could lookforward to the triumph of the maximalist, anti-Israel Hamas party, the anti-Palestinian activi-ties of ultra-nationalist, pro-settlement Israelis, and decades of increased violence.

Rabbi Aso LaterSeattle

EnOugH pLAyIng gAmES

I commend Mervyn Danker for his perceptive op-ed column (“A Palestinian state should bethe result of negotiations,” Sept. 16) as right on the mark.Abbas needs to negotiate directly with Netanyahu without pre-conditions and accept Israelas a Jewish state. Also, the creation of a Palestinian state via the UN will in no way end the

Mideast conict, but will only add to the instability in the region. It will not serve the interest

of the Palestinian people.Netanyahu spoke the truth to the General Assembly following Abbas’s speech when hesaid the United Nations has become both a “house of lies” and a “theater of the absurd” in itsobsession to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and to falsify the history of

the Palestinians’ own self-inicted wounds.

The Palestinians came to the UN to get a state, but without giving Israel peace in return.What cannot be overlooked is the fact that the Gaza half of the proposed Palestinian state isruled by Hamas that has openly called for the destruction of Israel and a genocide against theJewish people.UN Security Council Resolution 242 adopted on November 22, 1967 is the cornerstone forwhat it calls “a just and lasting peace” that recognizes Israel’s need for “secure and recognizedboundaries.” The resolution became the foundation for future peace negotiations.Netanyahu has extended his hand in peace. It is time that Abbas stop playing politicalgames and accept it. This may well result for the Jewish and Palestinian people living side byside with a real and lasting negotiated peace agreement.Pressuring Israel to make only one-sided concessions will not work.